Prewiring: Share your tips and tricks!

beelzerob

Senior Member
Within a month, I'll be finally running the 14k ft of wire I'm about to purchase in and around the framing of my house. But I find myself needing to start preparing mentally for this challenge. Oh, and there are some technical questions too....

The builder and electrician are going to give me a short course in what I can and CAN'T drill through and otherwise how I run the wire, so I'm not looking for code-related hints necessarily....but I'm looking for tips from you guys that have done this...your little nuggets of wisdom that will make it slightly less painful than it is sure to be. So start with answering these questions, and then add whatever other tips you can.

(What I've learned)

1) If I need 1000 ft of some type of wire, but most or all of my runs require 2 of that kind of wire....would it be better to buy 2 X 500 ft boxes of wire instead so I can run both wires as the same time?
Yes, it will be easier to be able to pull from individual boxes for a single run. So if you have runs that require 2 RG6, then 2 500ft boxes are better than 1 1000ft box. Smaller sizes of wire will probably cost you more per foot, though.

2) All wiring is going to the same location in the basement. Is it better to start all wiring runs from the basement and thread it to the target location, or do I start up there and work down.....or does it matter?
It's a matter of preference. If you run from upstairs down, then at least you're not working against gravity. However, if all of your runs terminate in one location (the basement), then pulling from that location means not having to move your boxes of cable all around the house.

3) Do I run just 1 wire at a time? Do I tie or tape wires together and run it like a big cable?
Run as many wires as you can in a single pull. So, if you have 2 RG6 and 2 Cat5 all coming from one location, then take those 4 wires and use electrical tape or velcro and join them together into one monster type cable and pull that through. Note that if you have 12 RG6QS wires in a single pull, you probably will not be able to fit that through any hole your studs could handle...maybe 3 runs of 4 wires each then.

4) Do I work on 1 room at a time, or 1 wire type at a time?
Since in most cases, a single run of wire may consist of several different wire types, it's usually better to do 1 room at a time.

5) Do I work 1 wire all the way through before starting another, or do I start several wires before moving to the next floor and continuing them on?
Better efficiency is achieved by getting as much wire as possible ready to be pulled on the next floor. Hours would be lost just going from 1 floor to the next pulling a single wire at a time. However, make sure that staging a lot of wires at the same point for pulling doesn't cause them to tangle while you're trying to pull them from the next floor.

6) Do you ever cut a wire to length before running it through where it goes? (assuming you somehow believe you know how long the wire is supposed to be)
To be avoided at all costs. It'll suck when you're a foot short. A better plan is to have enough cable sources so you can pull the cables all at the same time from individual boxes.

7) Should wires always come down from the ceiling, or can they come up from the floor (to halfway up the wall, for instance).
Whichever works, and whichever keeps them further away from HV wires. A common practice on 2 story houses is to run all of the 2nd floor wires up through the ceiling to a low-voltage "super-highway" conduit which goes straight down to the basement.

8) Try to stay 4 ft away from HV lines, and if you do have to cross over them, do it at a right angle.....RIGHT?
4' will be next to impossible. Instead, just don't share the same stud cavity if at all possible. And yes, right angle crossings when required.
Ok, that's a start....I'll have more questions no doubt as you guys answer. thanks for the help!
 
Within a month, I'll be finally running the 14k ft of wire I'm about to purchase in and around the framing of my house. But I find myself needing to start preparing mentally for this challenge. Oh, and there are some technical questions too....

The builder and electrician are going to give me a short course in what I can and CAN'T drill through and otherwise how I run the wire, so I'm not looking for code-related hints necessarily....but I'm looking for tips from you guys that have done this...your little nuggets of wisdom that will make it slightly less painful than it is sure to be. So start with answering these questions, and then add whatever other tips you can.

1) If I need 1000 ft of some type of wire, but most or all of my runs require 2 of that kind of wire....would it be better to buy 2 X 500 ft boxes of wire instead so I can run both wires as the same time?
2) All wiring is going to the same location in the basement. Is it better to start all wiring runs from the basement and thread it to the target location, or do I start up there and work down.....or does it matter?
3) Do I run just 1 wire at a time? Do I tie or tape wires together and run it like a big cable?
4) Do I work on 1 room at a time, or 1 wire type at a time?
5) Do I work 1 wire all the way through before starting another, or do I start several wires before moving to the next floor and continuing them on?
6) Do you ever cut a wire to length before running it through where it goes? (assuming you somehow believe you know how long the wire is supposed to be)
7) Should wires always come down from the ceiling, or can they come up from the floor (to halfway up the wall, for instance).
8) Try to stay 4 ft away from HV lines, and if you do have to cross over them, do it at a right angle.....RIGHT?

Ok, that's a start....I'll have more questions no doubt as you guys answer. thanks for the help!

1.) It's easiest to pull as many wires as you can at the same time. So I would say 2 boxes of 500 feet would be better than 1 box of 1000. Me personally, I would buy two boxes of 1000 just in case.

2. ) It doesn't matter which end you start from. Typically go with what's easiest. I like to run wires from top of the house down so I'm not fighting gravity when pulling wires.

3.) You can run 1 wire at a time if you want to spend 6x's the amount of time running wire (or however many wires you have). 14,000 feet, run one wire at a time by a single person = about a month to do. :) I just taped mine together and pulled them. I would recommend getting a nice bit set for your drill to drill large holes. The set I bought came with like 6 different size bits, and I wore them all out with all the holes I drilled, lol.

4.) You go with whatever suits you best. What I did was work on one 'wall outlet' at a time. For example, each low voltage wall outlet that I have, I ran two cat5's, one cat6, and three RG6 quad shield. Everything is homerun to the basement. So to save time, I tried to pull all of these at the same time, completing that 'wall outlet' in that specific room. I terminated what I need now in each room. Not to mention keystones run a fortune when you have 50 wall outlets with each having 6 wires. Here I terminated four of the 6 wires I ran to this particular plate:
m109224819.jpg


5.) This is a question I'm not sure the answer to. I ran my bundle of wires all the way through so that I could cut them at the homerun location in the basement. If you don't homerun them at the time you fish them, you can't cut them and have to wait. I guess it's your preference, but if you can pull a cluster of wires at the same time, run them immediately to your closet so you can cut them and move on to the next run.

6.) I have. I did this when I was running wire by myself. I wanted to fish wires from one level up through a wall in the level above, and into the attic above that level. Well, I need another person to help with the attic pull, so I just left enough wire in the lowest level so I can pull it up into the attic when I have a helper. Here's the wire waiting to get pulled through the upper level wall into the attic:
m105086489.jpg


7.) I'm not sure if there are any specific codes in regards to this, but it really shouldn't matter. My house is a quad level. The lowest two levels are unfinished. To run wires to the finished levels, I drilled up from below and fished them that way. Works great and saves wire since my homerun location is the basement. Look in the picture above and you can see wires just running up through ceiling on the lower level to the wall outlets in the level above.

8.) Correct. That's the idea. It gets impossible when you have half walls and stuff like that:
m105086220.jpg
 
Another tip that I have is to color code your wires. That makes it a lot easier to identify a wire. Also, invest in a nice labeler. Label each wire as you run it and you will never have a problem identifying wires. Sure you can ring them out, but that would take forever for every single wire....If you run each 'wall outlet' as a cluster, you can just label the cluster. Since your wires are color coded, you easily know which cat5 does what for that wall outlet. :)

My cat6 was red for Internet
My blue cat5 is for phone
My green cat5 is for auxillary whatever I may want in the future
and I'm going to get another color cat5 for security (hard wire)

Don't forget to run speaker wire for whole house music system. And cat5 for 1-wire devices (temperature sensors, weather station, etc...)

I'm also going to run in the walls HDMI, Component, VGA, Serial, SVideo, etc... in the areas where I know I'll use them
 
I agree, run all wires (coax, Cat5e) that go to a location such as a mud ring/box at the same time. Here is a small hint, for your coax spools use a piece of conduit to hold the spoll between the edges of two studs (just use nails to hold the conduit in place). That way you can easily spool off the coax from its spindle.
 
Oh, and if possible. Install some conduit pipes from your basement all the way up to your attic. In the future if you want to run something more, you can easily run it through these conduits. Try not to run wires in them now, they're just saved for future use

Edit: Now that I'm looking back at what I wrote, I think all of this is in the wiring guide, lol. Ah well, it's good info!
 
Great hints, all! Thanks!

good idea about putting the spool up off the ground via conduit or maybe PVC pipe. I'd been trying to think of some elaborate way of doing that, but just "nail it to a stud" is perfect. I always miss the easy way.

My hardest pull will be for each TV location, which involves 5 RG59, 2 RG6QS and 4 Cat5e.....man, that'll be like trying to route a log through those walls.

snypez, the wiring guide did give some really good ideas and suggestions, but didn't get into the nitty-gritty part of actually running the wire so much. that's what I'm trying to learn now.

I'm hoping to get a nice drill maybe on Black Friday. I'm debating trying to get a coordless one....I'm not entirely sure the house will have power by then (it should). I'm going to be doing much more pulling than drilling, but do you think it's too much for a coordless drill to handle?

Here's another question to debate....does anyone have a compelling arguement for using a gang box as opposed to a mud ring? I like the mudring just because you have such easy access to the wire in the wall. But I would think that a gang box would maybe provide a little more support of the wire. I'd think 5 RG59 in one faceplate might put some stress on a mudring....
 
I'm hoping to get a nice drill maybe on Black Friday. I'm debating trying to get a coordless one....I'm not entirely sure the house will have power by then (it should). I'm going to be doing much more pulling than drilling, but do you think it's too much for a coordless drill to handle?

It depends on your setup and just how much drilling you'll be doing. When I just needed to drill up through walls from below, I didn't drill that much. But for my half-walls, I had to drill through every stud. If you have to drill through a lot of studs in a similar situation, then you will need a corded drill.

If you do have power, I'd suggest getting a corded drill over a cordless. Better yet, get one of each, lol...
 
Great hints, all! Thanks!

good idea about putting the spool up off the ground via conduit or maybe PVC pipe. I'd been trying to think of some elaborate way of doing that, but just "nail it to a stud" is perfect. I always miss the easy way.

My hardest pull will be for each TV location, which involves 5 RG59, 2 RG6QS and 4 Cat5e.....man, that'll be like trying to route a log through those walls.

snypez, the wiring guide did give some really good ideas and suggestions, but didn't get into the nitty-gritty part of actually running the wire so much. that's what I'm trying to learn now.

I'm hoping to get a nice drill maybe on Black Friday. I'm debating trying to get a coordless one....I'm not entirely sure the house will have power by then (it should). I'm going to be doing much more pulling than drilling, but do you think it's too much for a coordless drill to handle?

Here's another question to debate....does anyone have a compelling arguement for using a gang box as opposed to a mud ring? I like the mudring just because you have such easy access to the wire in the wall. But I would think that a gang box would maybe provide a little more support of the wire. I'd think 5 RG59 in one faceplate might put some stress on a mudring....

Regarding the drill: Spend the bucks and get a right angle, low rpm drill. I have a Milwaukie, use it frequently for new projects I think up. Its built like a tank and combined with the Milwaukie bits chews through anything. This one tool will save you endless frustration and prevent trips to the doctor and chiropracter.
 
Couple of tips:

Use auger bits instead of spade bits. They cost more, but it's damn near a exercise in futility to try to drill through two or more 2bys with a spade bit.

Be mindful of the max allowed opening in the studs. It's sometimes necessary to drill two smaller holes instead of one larger one.

A 18V cordless with two batteries should work for you. I don't know what your studs are on, 16 OC, etc, but I found a right angle drill helped ALOT in drilling. I picked up a used one a ReTool for ~60. LithumIon drivers are even better, but more expensive.

I prefer mudrings to boxes. If you do use boxes, get the deepest ones you can. It's not so much the support of the wire, but the bend radius when you terminate the coax. It's easier to do in a mudring than a elec. box.

Leave approx 8" excess at each end location and coil it up at the box/ring. At the headend, I leave a crap load excess, because routing in the panel can use alot of slack.
 
Couple of other points. WATCH what studs you drill through. I don't know the construction word for them, but there are "supporting" classes of studs (usually thicker or doubled-up) that we were not allowed to drill through for my friend's house. Also, some headers over doors are not allowed to be drilled through. What we did was whatever our electrician (high voltage already ran when we did our low voltage runs) did not drill through, neither did we :).

We also made sure all of our low voltage boxes were painted orange so the inspector could easily distinguish them from the high voltage runs.
 
Couple of other points. WATCH what studs you drill through. I don't know the construction word for them, but there are "supporting" classes of studs (usually thicker or doubled-up) that we were not allowed to drill through for my friend's house. Also, some headers over doors are not allowed to be drilled through. What we did was whatever our electrician (high voltage already ran when we did our low voltage runs) did not drill through, neither did we :).

We also made sure all of our low voltage boxes were painted orange so the inspector could easily distinguish them from the high voltage runs.

heh..ya, I've already identified some I KNOW I can't drill through...there's about 4 of them stuck together, and of couse, a large LVL beam resting on it. But the builder already told me he'd help me know which ones were "no-touch". I may spray paint them bright red.

it seems that most likely in every room, the HV line is going to be running through the wall, every stud, to connect all the power outlets. It seems unlikely that I'm going to be able to completely avoid running LV near HV...if I have to cross the HV in the same stud cavity (at a right angle, of course), is that going to screw up all the signals on that line?

I definitely need a new drill anyway (have for a while), and if I had my choice, I'd get a coorded drill just for the power. I'm almost POSITIVE we'll have power by then, as I'm sure all the other trades in the house will want some.
 
...
I definitely need a new drill anyway (have for a while), and if I had my choice, I'd get a coorded drill just for the power. I'm almost POSITIVE we'll have power by then, as I'm sure all the other trades in the house will want some.
You may not have power IN the house but you will surely have power AT the house. I had to run long extension cords from the meter at the curb to where I was working. Corded right angle drill is your best friend when pulling wire.

I'll second the note on being careful of the size of the hole you drill. The national code says you can make holes through the middle 1/3rd of each stud for supporting studs (or at least it use to...).
 
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I definitely need a new drill anyway (have for a while), and if I had my choice, I'd get a coorded drill just for the power. I'm almost POSITIVE we'll have power by then, as I'm sure all the other trades in the house will want some.
You may not have power IN the house but you will surely have power AT the house. I had to run long extension cords from the meter at the curb to where I was working. Corded right angle drill is your best friend when pulling wire.

I'll second the note on being careful of the size of the hole you drill. The national code says you can make holes through the middle 1/3rd of each stud for supporting studs (or at least it use to...).

The builder said that once power is actually run to the house panel, the electrician will wire 2 power plugs in the basement so the trades can use them. So I'll need an extension cord for sure, but it should be available power downstairs.

And the builder and electrician will let me know just how big a hole I can drill. They're pretty helpful.
 
The spool on the stud tip is good, but if you are pulling alot of wire, especially several at a time, you are probably best off using a cable rack, dolly, etc. You can get then as low as like $65 up through several hundred. The Rack-A-Tiers is a cool and inexpensive setup. Around $70 - there is even a used on on ebay. Google 'Cable Dolly' or 'Cable Rack' or 'Rack-A-Tiers', many solutions and stores. Using a pro rack also insures the spool is not going anywhere and takes little effort.
 
I understand your issue. While the concepts make sense, there is still a little confusion about exactly how to do things "when the rubber actually hits the road".

My personal tips, thoughts, whatever.

Get one of those containers of wire ties at HD or lowes. I got a set that had 2 sizes in multiple colors. I was able to label a single coax cable and then bundle 2 or 3 others with it using a couple of the small ties. I made for pulling the set a lot easier. Then when I cut the box end, I added a single label to the set and tied this group together, e.g. BR2-North. This made the pulling task go faster (especially when you have temporary help). You can go back and label the individual wires at your own pace. Also, using the multiple colors allowed me to do general things like green tie=BR1, blue ones = Office, etc. If you have a lot of rooms you can do combinations of colors, since I suggest using two ties on each end (spaced about 5" apart).

As far as labels go, I used some like these from RadioShack. They gave a volume discount when buying more than 6 packs, I think. There are other sources for these, including larger dispensers, but I ran out of time and the RS price was comparable.

I also picked up a package of 2 rolls of velcro wire wraps (at HD I think ~$5.00). Really helped for making temporary cable bundles both at the wiring can and for holding together bundles along the runs. This way you can add groups to a bundle as you go, eventually putting on a plastic wire tie when you are done.

As mentioned by others, get a decent drill, but more importantly use auger bits like this

Get 2 or three different sizes, like 1", 5/8", 3/8". These cut like butter and leave a much smoother
hole than spade bits. Also, I would suggest not using a cordless drill. These bits can load down a drill pretty heavily which drains batterys quickly. Having a cordless is nice for a secondary drill for smaller drilling, i.e. the 3/8" stuff.

You may want to pick up one spade bit, 5/8" or so. These work better for creating larger holes needed for fishing wire, e.g. when trying to go through the two studs in a corner. I followed the same method that the electricians used. You can drill a hole with the spade bit and then kinda' rock the drill up and down to reem out the hole into more of an up/down slot. This made it easy to push the wire into one corner stud and then reach into the corner through the bigger hole to get it. (If this doesn't make sense now, it probably will once you look at your first corner that you need to run wire from one wall to another, i.e. for window sensors.)


I agree that a right angle drill is nice to have, but it is not absolutely required and if you don't think you'll need it after you're done, a standard drill will suffice.

Having multiple boxes of wire is a big help. I didn't have this luxury when I did my house (alone), but did for my parent's house which I just finished. It is a lot faster to pull 2 cat5's and 2 coax's at the same time. Also, get different colors of wire. This helps with later identification, i.e. you can ID the separate CAT5s at a box if one is gray and one is blue. Similarly, I used multiple colors of wire for the 22-2 alarm wire (Elk). Windows-green, doors-orange, speakers-blue.

I used a couple of milk crates and a piece of 1/2" pvc pipe to make spool holders for my coax cable. This worked well. This was the only cable I used that was on a spool. Everything else was in a box, so the need for investing in an expensive cable setup wasn't cost effective for me.

Definitely use the low voltage boxes. These weren't readily available when I did my house, but both Lowes and HD have these and it is much nicer to not have to deal with the box backs, especially when dealing with stiff RG6. Also, since these are orange, it makes them easily distinguishable.

Wire a room at a time and typically do a single gang box with each pull. However, for security wire, I found it easy to pull multiple rooms at once. In my case, each room is a zone, so for example, I pulled wire for a front BR and the office at the same time. They followed similar pathways in the attic and I just dropped the office one off as I did the BR. Once finished, I came back and did the office. You'll likely find that things go a bit slower for the first few pulls as you try to determine your best routes. Things get faster once you stop "thinking" so much.

Don't forget to run wires to various locations that you think may need sensors, i.e. water heater, t-stat, exterior water pumps (freeze sensor), door bell (chime location, not button), etc.

Being in TX, we don't have basements, so we think about things from an attic perspective. If that is your situation and you don't add a PVC conduit to allow for adding wires to your home-run box, make sure you at least drill a large hole directly above an empty knockout in your can. You should then be able to drop a sting/weight or a fishline to the box for adding wires later.

gk
 
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